Chase Lake Bass Fishing near Priest Lake

Some Excellent Largemouth Bass Fishing

Rick Lawrence, owner of Fish N Fool Lures proudly displays a 5-pound female largemouth to the camera just before releasing her back into the Chase Lake. This fish might have weighed a full 6 pounds but she had already spawned out though she was still guarding her spring-time next. Releasing such prize fish guarantees a sound genetic stock for the years to come. Rick has caught thousands of bass with his plastic swim-baits and I’ve never seen him kill one. Photo by Dwayne Parsons

Chase Lake is little more than 3 miles from Lee Lake by road. You drive back into Coolin, then take the Eastside Road going south. The Chase Lake sportsman’s access is about a mile down on the left. Then it’s half a mile into the lake itself.

I met famed bass fisherman, Rick Lawrence there on a Sunday afternoon a couple of weeks ago. I had a wonderful evening with 23 largemouth and Rick, true to form, beat me with his 31 including this late blossom female pictured above.

The sunset, shown above from the North East shore of Chase is exactly what we saw. I stopped fishing for a few precious moments to capture this incredibly rare sunset, my heart and mind at awe over the beauty such displays add to the already scenic North Idaho terrain.

A trip like this is just one of many, many such recreational moments available to those fortunate enough to live in a setting like that available to the owner(s) of the Sundance Estate on Lee Lake Road. Priest Lake itself is home to some world-class Mackinaw (lake trout) fishing as well as West Slope cutthroat trout, small mouth bass in great abundance and kokanee (the yearly supply of 11-12 inch sockeye salmon that become the feedstock of the oversize Mackinaw when you are lucky enough to tie into one.

Here’s another photo of Chase, taken earlier showing the eastern shoreline. We were tossing Rick’s famed Fish N Fool swim baits right onto the edge of the grass lines, where many of the bass were hiding. Often, we’d have a strike with in seconds and a strike generally meant a fish to the boat in this setting.

The eastern shore of Chase Lake where we fished the reeds and grass undercuts for an abundance of largemouth bass. Photo by Dwayne Parsons

So you can imagine perhaps how difficult it was to break from the incredible bass fishing to capture this sunset (shown again below) as evening set nestled into night.

Chase Lake allows only oars and electric motors, the latter of which we had attached to Rick’s bass boat. I remember the thoughts of peace and serenity as we quietly streamed across the water you are looking at below toward the boat launch in the dark trees of the opposite shore. It’s such a satisfying reprieve from the daily grind to experience even an hour and a half of such fine fishing, so close at hand.

Chase Lake sunset, a bass and crappie lake close to the Sundance Estate at Priest Lake. Photo by Dwayne Parsons